http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=the+fighter
Not sure it's out in Britain yet, but it is here. Getting lots of good reviews. I saw it yesterday.
It's hard to imagine that there'd be any more good boxing films left to be made, since there have already been so many along with some not so good ones, but here this is.
It's the mostly true story of "Irish" Mickey Ward, who only retired a few years ago, but I had only vaguely heart of him. I don't follow boxing. (Few Americans do any more.) The story follows the standard boxing story arc for the most part, but it's really not about boxing so much as it's about how a guy holds onto his crazy family while doing what he needs to do for himself.
And anyway, the story isn't what is important about the film. Even the boxing, which is well shot and performed, is secondary. What makes the film great are the characters and the performances.
Mark Wahlberg, who championed the project for a long time, plays Mickey Ward, a working class guy from Lowell, Massachusetts who makes it as a boxer, blah, blah. Standard stuff really. Wahlberg kind of plays himself here and maybe plays Mickey as a bit too heroic and noble, but perhaps the real guy is too, I don't know.
The keys to the film are Christian Bale's portrayal of Ward's half-brother Dicky Eklund and Melissa Leo as his mom. The story centers around Ward's difficult relationship with these two people who are dragging him down despite trying so hard to help him. If Bale doesn't get nominated for best supporting actor in all the big awards, it will be a traveshamockery. That's one category that the awards usually pick very worthy winners. Bale really is one of the great actors of our time. I don't think he's usually acknowledged as such, but he ought to be.
Amy Adams is fantastic as the hard drinking and hard swearing but very hot Charlene, Ward's girlfriend-now-wife - I like her in everything she does - and the group of relative unknowns they got to play Ward's gaggle of seven sisters is remarkable casting. They got Ward's real trainer to play himself, very well (playing oneself isn't always that easy) and Jack McKee plays his dad. Jack McKee is in every Boston-irishy movie, and is perfect for this part too.
Critically, the film turns Lowell into a character of its own. It seems like "working class Irish-Americans near Boston" has become it's own genre, but so far only Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, and The Fighter feel like they're really in that world. Not that I have first hand knowledge of that world, but I've definitely seen it and talked to a lot of people from it, so I can at least recognize when it's a bit fake.
Anyway, highly recommended.
Not sure it's out in Britain yet, but it is here. Getting lots of good reviews. I saw it yesterday.
It's hard to imagine that there'd be any more good boxing films left to be made, since there have already been so many along with some not so good ones, but here this is.
It's the mostly true story of "Irish" Mickey Ward, who only retired a few years ago, but I had only vaguely heart of him. I don't follow boxing. (Few Americans do any more.) The story follows the standard boxing story arc for the most part, but it's really not about boxing so much as it's about how a guy holds onto his crazy family while doing what he needs to do for himself.
And anyway, the story isn't what is important about the film. Even the boxing, which is well shot and performed, is secondary. What makes the film great are the characters and the performances.
Mark Wahlberg, who championed the project for a long time, plays Mickey Ward, a working class guy from Lowell, Massachusetts who makes it as a boxer, blah, blah. Standard stuff really. Wahlberg kind of plays himself here and maybe plays Mickey as a bit too heroic and noble, but perhaps the real guy is too, I don't know.
The keys to the film are Christian Bale's portrayal of Ward's half-brother Dicky Eklund and Melissa Leo as his mom. The story centers around Ward's difficult relationship with these two people who are dragging him down despite trying so hard to help him. If Bale doesn't get nominated for best supporting actor in all the big awards, it will be a traveshamockery. That's one category that the awards usually pick very worthy winners. Bale really is one of the great actors of our time. I don't think he's usually acknowledged as such, but he ought to be.
Amy Adams is fantastic as the hard drinking and hard swearing but very hot Charlene, Ward's girlfriend-now-wife - I like her in everything she does - and the group of relative unknowns they got to play Ward's gaggle of seven sisters is remarkable casting. They got Ward's real trainer to play himself, very well (playing oneself isn't always that easy) and Jack McKee plays his dad. Jack McKee is in every Boston-irishy movie, and is perfect for this part too.
Critically, the film turns Lowell into a character of its own. It seems like "working class Irish-Americans near Boston" has become it's own genre, but so far only Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, and The Fighter feel like they're really in that world. Not that I have first hand knowledge of that world, but I've definitely seen it and talked to a lot of people from it, so I can at least recognize when it's a bit fake.
Anyway, highly recommended.
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